How to Conduct an SEO Audit

1. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
<client
site>
Technical
SEO
Audit
__________________________________________________________________________
Prepared
by
<Your
Name>
<Month
–
Year>
http://www.optify.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Technical-SEO-Audit-Template1.pdf
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

2. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Summary
This
SEO
assessment
examined
<www.clientsite.com>
to
establish
a
current
baseline
against
core
dimensions
of
search
engine
visibility
and
ranking
factors.
Category
Grade
Notes
Domain
Health
History
A-­‐
Well
established
root
domain
name
with
long
history
Authority
C+
The
main
site
has
solid
domain
authority,
however
the
overall
company
authority
is
diluted
among
several
domains.
URL
Structure
D
URLs
are
still
using
Wordpress
?p=1
structure
which
does
not
add
quality,
descriptive
text
to
the
file
names
Keywords
Focus
C
Opportunity
to
refine
the
current
content
around
better
performing
keywords
and
add
new
content
to
support
target
keyword
list.
Ranking
C
Brand
and
non-­‐productive
keywords
rank
well,
but
not
much
else.
Page
Structure
SEO
Elements
B
Good
use
of
SEO
elements
in
general.
Opportunity
to
improve
URL
hierarchy
if
CMS
can
handle
it.
Link
Technology
A
No
re-­‐directs
or
other
link
shenanigans.
Website
Technology
A-­‐
Clean
URLs,
page
structure
and
in-­‐page
information
hierarchy.
We
could
do
more
with
the
customer
PDF
case
studies.
Site
Content
Quantity
B+
There
could
be
more
“pillar”
pages
that
speak
to
specific
capabilities
for
specific
needs
on
the
main
site.
Blog
Content
B+
Good
volume,
but
could
improve
interlinking
and
keyword
focus.
Duplicate
Content
B+
Some
technical
issues
are
driving
duplicate
title
tags.
Linking
Internal/On-­‐Site
Links
B
Clean
links
but
opportunities
on
blog,
footer
and
navigation
Outbound
Links
A
Limited
outbound
links
Inbound
Quantity
A
Good
inbound
volume
of
links,
but
fewer
domains
than
competitors
Inbound
Diversity
B
A
great
start,
but
need
to
broaden
link
base.
Inbound
Anchor
Text
C
This
is
hard
for
everyone,
but
improving
internal
anchor
text
will
help
Technical
Server
Errors
A-­‐
A
few
small
server
errors
(only
4)
404
Page
Errors
C
A
relatively
large
number
of
404
errors
to
be
fixed
Robots
Exclusion
A
Need
to
double
check
that
exclusions
are
proper
and
relevant
Sitemap
XML
C
Needs
to
be
updated
and
kept
fresh
Page
Load
Speed
A-­‐
Better
than
90%
of
sites,
but
one
high
priority
fix
improvement
Social
Social
Profiles
A
Well
established
and
active
Social
Sharing
B
Room
for
improvement
on
site
and
in
blog
Social
Activity
A
Great
syndication
and
good
content
mix
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

3. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Prioritized
Recommendation
Themes
This
section
contains
the
major,
prioritized
recommendation
themes
that
came
out
of
the
overall
assessment,
taking
into
account
impact
on
search
engines
and
how
easily
they
might
be
implemented.
Naturally,
the
prioritization
is
only
a
suggestion
and
might
depend
on
more
factors
like
company
internal
resources,
and
such.
Optimize
Current
Content
–
Updating
the
basic
SEO
elements
such
as
title
tag
and
meta
description
will
require
the
re-­‐thinking
of
the
focus
keywords
and
messaging
on
each
page.
We
can
then
determine
how
that
will
impact
the
page
content.
Fix
Site
Technical
Issues-­‐
Repairing
the
404
pages,
duplicate
content
and
improving
page
load
speed
will
give
us
a
better
foundation
for
growth
and
has
limited
impact
on
messaging.
Improve
Internal
Linking
–
Based
on
updated
focus
keywords
per
page,
we
should
add
internal
links
from
blog
posts
and
a
new
fat
footer
to
main
content
pages
on
site.
Optimize
Blog
–
the
blog
URL
structure
and
categorization
can
be
refined
and
improved
to
zero
in
on
focus
keywords
and
phrases.
Build
out
Content
Plan
for
Page
Expansion
–
We
need
to
specifically
identify
content
gaps
between
current
main
pages
and
targeted
focus
keywords.
The
content
plan
will
help
to
fill
those
gaps.
Update
Sitemap
XML
–
Review
and
update
this
sitemap
so
that
is
refreshed
with
every
new
page
added
to
the
site
via
code.
Consolidate
Domain
Authority
–
We
need
to
re-­‐consider
the
multiple
domain
approach
for
<Client>in
order
to
consolidate
the
links
and
authority
of
the
multiple
properties
into
a
single
domain.
Share
Keyword
Strategy
with
Content
Creators
–
We
need
to
socialize
the
keyword
strategy
to
the
team
that
is
creating
content
so
they
understand
both
what
the
keywords
are
and
how
their
work
can
impact
SEO.
Inbound
Link
Training
and
Option
Exploration
–
Once
we
have
the
on-­‐site
SEO
elements
and
tactics
updated,
we
need
to
focus
on
different
tactics
and
opportunities
for
link
building.
This
is
essentially
a
training
and
brainstorming
session
for
link
acquisition.
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

4. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Domain
Health
This
section
of
the
assessment
reports
on
issues
related
to
your
domain(s),
or
networking
configuration
that
could
affect
the
ability
of
search
engines
to
crawl
your
site.
Domain
History
Description:
Health
and
history
of
domain.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
The
domain
has
a
long
life
span
with
crawls
beginning
in
June
of
2007.
The
number
of
crawls
increased
significantly
at
the
end
of
2010
and
continued
on
into
2011.
However,
<Client
Name>
is
currently
building
content
on
multiple
domains
which
dilute
authority.
The
biggest
opportunity
is
to
logically
consolidate
domains
into
a
single
root
domain
Domain
Domain
Authority
External
Links
<www.clientsite.com>
70/100
90,782
<www.clientsite1.com>
20/100
192
<www.clientsite2.com>
33/100
623
<www.clientsite3.com>
35/100
1,063
(URL:
http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/<Your
Domain>)
<www.clientsite.com>
Domain
Authority
Description:
Building
the
authority
of
the
root
domain
and
sub-­‐domain
creates
the
important
foundation
for
transferring
that
authority
to
the
individual
pages
that
are
optimized
for
specific
keywords.
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

5. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
Client
Competitor
1
Competitor
2
Domain
70/100
76/100
72/100
Authority
Homepage
75/100
80/100
77/100
Authority
The
domain
authority
for
<ClientSite.com>
is
71/100.
The
homepage
authority
is
76/100.
For
comparison
sake
and
to
help
contextualize
these
scores,
<Competitor
Site
1>
has
a
domain
authority
is
76/100
and
a
homepage
authority
of
80/100.
The
path
to
boosting
domain
authority
is
through
additional
links
via
continuing
to
create
relevant/targeted
content
and
social
activity.
URL
Structure
Description:
The
URL
structure
is
an
important
component
of
site
hierarchy
and
signals
the
importance
of
the
directory
levels
to
the
engines.
In
general,
a
flatter
url
structure
with
descriptive
words
is
preferred
over
a
many
level/layer
approach.
A
sub-­‐domain
can
live
on
different
servers
and
different
IP
addresses.
Search
engines
treat
sub-­‐domains
as
an
“almost”
different
domain
which
means
that
sub-­‐domains
should
be
used
very
intentionally.
In
general,
building
content
onto
a
domain
via
directory
and
file
name
is
preferred
over
building
a
sub-­‐
domain
structure.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
<Client>has
opportunities
to
improve
the
URL
structure
–
especially
in
the
blog
section
of
the
site.
We
want
three
things
in
a
URL
structure:
1) As
flat
a
structure
as
possible
–
minimize
un-­‐productive
directory/folder
levels.
This
helps
move
the
webpage
file
closer
to
the
homepage
allowing
the
page
to
inherit
more
homepage
authority.
2) Descriptive
file
names
–
the
file
name
of
the
page
is
a
critical
content
element
and
should
be
descriptive
without
dynamic
query
strings
or
obscure
naming
conventions.
3) Focus
Keywords
in
directory/file
name
structures.
The
entire
URL
is
a
content
signal
so
considering
how
blog
categories
and
information
hierarchy
supports
the
focus
keywords.
Samples:
Homepage:
<www.clientsite.com>
Products:
Current:
http://<www.clientsite.com>/products/overview.aspx
Better:
http://<www.clientsite.com>/digital-­‐products.aspx
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

6. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Featured
Products
Current:
http://<www.clientsite.com>/what-­‐weve-­‐done/featured-­‐projects/featured-­‐
project.aspx?FeaturedProjectId=4
Better:
http://<www.clientsite.com>/what-­‐weve-­‐done/ClientName-­‐Social-­‐Community
Blog
Post:
Current:
http://<www.clientsite.com>/blog/?p=1234
Better:
http://<www.clientsite.com>/social-­‐blog/social-­‐media/10-­‐steps-­‐to-­‐inbound-­‐
marketing-­‐nirvana.php
Keywords
This
section
describes
the
important
considerations
for
integrating
a
keyword
strategy
into
a
website.
Keyword
Focus
Description:
Focus
keywords
help
us
identify
gaps
in
content,
site
structure
and
link
strategy
while
helping
drive
the
content
creation
process
through
editors,
bloggers
and
PR
teams.
Different
types
of
sites
can
support
different
levels
of
focus
keyword
strategies.
E-­‐Commerce
sites,
for
example,
tend
to
have
1,000s
of
pages
that
support
individual
products
while
B2B
or
marketing
sites
tend
to
have
a
much
smaller
number
of
pages
and
consequently,
need
a
smaller
list
of
focus
keywords.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
The
keywords
that
the
<Client
Name>
website
is
currently
built
on
(see
site
terms
list
in
Optify)
is
either
too
broad
–
“<Keyword
1>”
–
or
have
very
few
searches
–
“<Keyword
2>”.
The
terms
that
the
site
focuses
on
that
are
ranked
very
highly
such
as
“<Keyword
3>”
(ranked
#1
in
Google)
are
not
driving
any
traffic
(0
visits
in
last
30
days).
There
is
an
enormous
opportunity
to
re-­‐focus
current
content
pages
on
more
appropriate
keywords
and
look
to
add
content
pages
to
support
focus
terms
that
can
generate
leads.
<Insert
Screenshot
from
Optify
Keyword
Rank
application
of
focus
keyword
rank>
Keyword
Ranking
Description:
Keyword
ranks
are
a
leading
indicator
of
success
in
a
search
engine
optimization
program.
Securing
a
top
10
and
then
a
top
3
rank
does
not
guarantee
traffic
from
that
keyword
search,
but
is
a
pre-­‐requisite.
The
ultimate
goal
is
always
a
#1
rank,
but
starting
with
any
rank
and
moving
up
is
a
common
path
to
success.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

7. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
<Client>
currently
has
63
of
215
tracked
keywords
ranking
in
the
top
20.
Most
of
the
top
ranked
terms
are
<Client>branded
which
also
constitutes
the
majority
of
organic
search
traffic
.
A
major
goal
of
this
project
is
to
broaden
the
visibility
of
<Client>for
non-­‐branded,
earlier
in
the
funnel
terms.
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

8. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
<Client>doesn’t
do
quite
as
well
in
Bing
US,
only
42
keywords
rank
in
the
top
20
with
only
7
ranked
#1.
Page
Structure
This
section
details
the
important
components
of
on-­‐page
optimization
at
the
page
level.
SEO
Elements
Description:
Each
webpage
should
contain
the
following
critical
SEO
elements
that
help
the
search
engines
understand,
very
cleanly,
what
the
page
is
about
and
which
keyword
phrases
it
should
rank
against.
Each
page
should
have
unique
SEO
elements
to
minimize
the
chance
of
the
engines
thinking
there
is
duplicate
content
on
the
site.
File
Name
–
the
actual
file
name
of
the
page
like
default.aspx,
about-­‐us.html,
etc.
Wherever
possible,
the
file
name
should
align
with
the
focus
keywords
and
use
a
hyphen
between
multi-­‐keyword
phrases.
Directory
Structure
–
how
the
site
is
organized,
number
of
folders
in
the
URL
tree
and
words
in
the
folder
structure
tell
the
engines
the
information
hierarchy
of
the
site.
Engines,
in
general,
like
a
flatter
hierarchy
and
value
file
name/pages
closer
to
the
root
domain
as
more
important
and
authoritative
on
the
site.
Title
Tags
–
(aka
Browser
Tags)
–
Display
at
the
very
top
of
the
browser,
not
in
the
body
of
the
page,
and
is
used
as
the
title
of
the
page
on
a
search
engine
result.
Maximum
characters
limit
of
64
and
should
lead
with
the
focus
keyword
for
the
page.
Meta
Description
–
Does
not
display
on
the
page
itself,
so
therefor
is
not
used
in
ranking
calculations
–
however
is
often
used
as
the
description
lines
on
a
search
engine
result
which
contributes
to
click-­‐
through
from
the
engines
to
the
site.
Maximum
character
limit
of
156
and
should
include
the
focus
keyword
of
the
page
to
improve
click-­‐through
rate.
Header
Tags
–
Header
tags
like
the
<h1>
and
<h2>
are
styling
tags
that
give
the
engines
an
indicator
of
what
copy
on
the
page
is
at
the
top
of
the
information
hierarchy
–
the
<h1>
tends
to
be
the
headline
or
biggest
copy
on
the
page,
etc.
–
which
adds
emphasis
to
focus
keywords.
There
should
be
only
one
<h1>
tag
per
page
while
multiple
<h2>
and
<h3>
tags
are
acceptable.
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

9. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Alt-­‐Text
on
Images
–
Since
search
engines
can’t
“read”
text
in
images,
it
is
important
to
include
text
associated
with
the
images
in
the
form
of
an
alt-­‐text
tag
that
supports
the
focus
keyword
for
the
page
and
accurately
describes
the
image.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
In
general,
<Client>uses
best
technical
practices
for
file
names,
title
tags,
header
tags,
and
meta
descriptions.
But,
we
are
missing
opportunities
to
give
ranking
signals
to
the
search
engines
to
boost
more
focus
terms.
File
Names-­‐
File
names
are
user
friendly,
but
focus
on
inside-­‐out
keywords
like:
what-­‐we-­‐offer/overview
Directory
Structure
–
<Client>adds
an
unnecessary
directory
level
for
some
pages
such
as
http://<www.clientsite.com>/products/overview.aspx
-­‐
the
products
directory
or
the
overview.aspx
page
is
unnecessary.
This
page
should
be
something
like
http://<www.clientsite.com>/electical-­‐
products.aspx
The
blog
directory
structure
could
be
improved
by
using
updating
name
of
blog
and
categories
as
directory
levels.
This:
http://<www.clientsite.com>/blog/index.php/social-­‐media-­‐levels-­‐the-­‐playing-­‐field-­‐in-­‐online-­‐
charitable-­‐giving/
Should
be:
http://<www.clientsite.com>/social-­‐blog/social-­‐media/social-­‐media-­‐levels-­‐the-­‐playing-­‐field-­‐
in-­‐online-­‐charitable-­‐giving/
Title
Tags-­‐
Combine
multiple
focus
keywords
into
a
single
title
tag
>
need
more
clear
content
per
page.
Also,
put
the
brand
at
the
end
of
the
title
tag
as
the
first
four
words
carry
the
most
impact.
The
what
we
do
page
title
tag
should
be:
<Core
descriptive
keywords>
–
<Client
Name>
Meta
Descriptions-­‐
Very
marketing
talk,
need
more
call
to
action
and
reason
to
click
in.
This
is
your
opportunity
to
merchandise
the
page
content
and
get
a
click
when
you
show
up
in
the
search
engine.
Header
Tags-­‐
<Client>does
a
good
job
of
having
only
one
H1
tag,
but
the
copy
is
inside-­‐out
driven
and
doesn’t
align
with
focus
keywords
for
page.
who-­‐we-­‐are/overiew
<h1>
tag
is
<“insert
actual
tag
here”>
but
should
be
something
like
<”new,
recommended
title
tag
for
example”>.
Alt-­‐Text-­‐
Images
contain
alt
text,
which
is
good.
However,
the
alt
text
could
be
improved
to
align
with
focus
keywords.
Link
Technology
Description:
Search
engine
bots
that
crawl
websites
looking
for
content
are
relatively
dumb
and
need
to
follow
links
from
page
to
page.
This
allows
them
to
index
content
and
understand
the
link
relationships
between
pages
to
pass
authority
from
page
to
page.
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

10. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
The
search
bots
do
not
execute
javascript
and
understand
the
difference
between
301
and
302
re-­‐
directs.
The
best
practice
for
internal
links
for
both
better
indexing
and
passing
of
authority
is
to
use
normal
HTML
links
in
the
navigation,
body
copy,
cross-­‐sell
modules,
footers,
etc.
and
not
use
re-­‐directs
or
javascript
type
links.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
<Client>has
a
good
internal
link
structure
using
normal
HTML
links
throughout.
Anchor
text
of
internal
links
could
be
improved
based
on
focus
keyword
list.
Website
Technology
Description:
The
types
of
technologies
used
on
a
website
can
have
dramatic
impacts
on
how
the
page
content
is
crawled
and
consumed
by
the
search
engines.
Content
Management
Systems
(CMS),
the
use
of
rich
media
like
flash,
video,
audio
and
the
use
of
new
technologies
for
a
social
media
feel
like
having
all
copy
on
a
single
page
with
the
navigation
driven
by
a
/#!/
URL
structure
all
have
implications
on
the
organic
visibility
of
the
site.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
<Client>
is
using
<WordPress>
which
is
a
solid
CMS
platform
that
can
displays
text
properly.
The
site
highlights
information
in
a
way
that
is
engaging,
but
doesn’t
use
rich
media
or
new
URL
structures
that
would
inhibit
search
engine
crawls.
Wordpress
is
highly
customizable
to
be
a
better
SEO
and
content
platform.
More
recommendations
on
that
located
<here>
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

11. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Site
Content
This
section
describes
the
important
SEO
considerations
for
the
technical
aspects
of
content
publishing
on
a
website.
Quantity
Description:
Each
individual
page
on
a
website
is
an
opportunity
to
rank
for
a
small
number
of
keywords
(2-­‐3
maximum).
The
more
pages
you
have
on
the
site,
the
more
pages
are
indexed
in
the
search
engines,
the
more
opportunity
you
have
for
showing
up
in
search
for
a
wider
variety
of
terms.
In
general,
having
more
pages
of
good
content
with
a
focus
keyword
strategy
will
improve
the
visibility
and
traffic
from
organic
search.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
<Client>has
a
large
number
of
pages
indexed
compared
to
top
alternatives.
The
opportunity
comes
from
refining
these
pages
around
a
more
specific
list
of
focus
keywords
at
the
blog
and
pillar
page
level.
URL
Pages
Indexed
Google
http://<www.clientsite.com>
546
http://www.<Competitor
Site
1>
223
http://www.<Competitor
Site
2>
349
Source:
Using
the
site:
domain.com
search
command
in
Google
Blog
Content
and
Structure
Description:
The
blog
strategy
and
tactical
approach
is
an
important
part
of
the
content
profile
of
a
website.
The
blog
contributes
the
following:
-­‐ A
method
for
publishing
content
on
a
more
rapid
and
flexible
basis
than
working
through
some
normal
CMS
systems
-­‐ Highly
focused,
additional
pages
of
content
for
the
site
-­‐ An
opportunity
for
cross-­‐linking
between
blog
posts
and
main
site
pages
-­‐ An
opportunity
for
the
readership/community
to
comment
on
blogs
which
adds
to
the
dynamic
nature
of
the
page
and
site.
In
order
for
the
blog
to
be
effective
content
with
regards
to
search
engines,
it
needs
to
have
the
following
main
characteristics:
-­‐ Each
blog
post
must
be
it’s
own
page
of
content
-­‐ The
blog
must
live
on
the
domain
or
directory
structure
of
the
main
site
to
add
to
the
value
of
the
domain
or
directory
levels.
Sub-­‐domain
use
of
blogs
are
not
optimal.
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

12. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
-­‐ The
URL
structure
of
the
blog
platform
must
be
optimized
to
include
the
blog
title
as
the
file
name,
no
use
of
dates/archives
in
the
directory
structure
and
if
possible,
use
categories
as
part
of
the
URL
structure.
-­‐ Each
blog
post
should
have
the
option
of
modifying
title
tags,
meta
descriptions,
categories
and
other
elements
on
a
post
by
post
basis.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
• <Client’s>
blog
lives
on
the
same
domain
which
is
optimal
–
http://<www.clientsite.com>/blog/.
• Each
post
in
the
<Client>blog
lives
in
it’s
own
page
of
content
with
a
URL
that
uses
only
the
title
of
the
post.
http://<www.clientsite.com>/blog/index.php/10-­‐steps-­‐to-­‐inbound-­‐marketing-­‐
nirvana/
however
does
not
use
categories.
• As
previously
mentioned,
the
URL
structure
can
be
optimized
around
strong
categories.
• Title
tags
look
to
be
a
straight
copy
of
the
headline
–
best
practice
is
to
optimize
the
title
tag
for
shorter
size
and
keyword
focus.
• Meta
Descriptions
look
unique
but
are
too
long
and
don’t
create
a
“must
click”
statement
for
the
SERPS
• Has
a
strong
opportunity
to
link
back
to
content
on
the
main
site.
Creating
pillar
pages
for
leading
product
features
as
well
as
a
glossary
will
greatly
increase
these
opportunities.
•
Appeals
to
prospects
as
well
as
current
customers
by
the
content
that
is
offered.
• Frequency
of
postings
has
a
strong
upward
trend;
this
provides
more
opportunities
to
link
back
to
the
main
site
and
boost
authority.
• Posts
can
be
shared
on
social
media
and
commented
on,
but
community
involvement
through
commenting
is
almost
non-­‐existent.
• Blog
posts
are
not
optimized
with
specific
keywords,
these
keywords
could
exist
in
the
form
of
tags
and
a
tag
cloud
Duplicate
Content
Description:
Duplicate
content
occurs
when
the
exact
same
words
and
pages
show
up
as
multiple
URLs.
This
confuses
the
engines
who
are
trying
to
assign
the
right
level
of
authority
to
pages
and
causes
a
dilution
of
that
authority.
Duplicate
content
tends
to
occur
in
the
following
situations:
-­‐ The
same
homepage
is
indexed
under
different
file
names
due
to
the
CMS
system
such
as:
/default.html,
/index.html,
or
no
file
name
at
all.
-­‐ The
use
of
query
strings
to
track
internal
link
activity
causes
the
same
page
to
be
indexed
multiple
times
with
different
query
string
tracking
parameters.
-­‐ The
URLs
and
directory
structures
contain
both
upper
and
lower
case
-­‐ Individual
product
pages
use
query
strings
to
display
different
colors,
sizes
or
product
options
when
the
primary
content
is
the
same
-­‐ The
same
article
or
blog
post
is
published
to
multiple
pages
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

13. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
<Client>has
51
duplicate
title
tags.
A
large
portion
is
coming
from
the
same
news
story
posting
twice
and
getting
indeed.
Some
duplicate
are
old
pages
that
have
not
been
de-­‐indexed.
Both
of
these
should
be
fixed
with
the
duplicate
articles
a
bit
trickier.
Old
pages
should
have
a
no-­‐index
attribute
added
to
the
individual
page
header
and
the
robots.txt
can
be
updated
to
noindex
an
“old”
page.
Since
those
pages
are
not
in
a
directory,
it
might
need
to
be
on
a
page
by
page
basis.
The
old
pages
should
also
301
re-­‐direct
to
new
pages
to
preserve
any
authority.
<Screenshot
from
Google
Webmaster
Tools
on
duplicate
Title
Tag
Data>
source:
Google
Webmaster
Tools
for
<Client
Name>.com
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

14. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Linking
This
section
describes
the
multiple
categories
of
link
types
and
important
SEO
considerations.
Internal/On-­‐Site
Linking
Description:
Since
search
engines
see
each
page
on
a
site
as
a
unique
opportunity
to
rank
for
specific
keywords,
how
we
refer
to
ourselves
from
page
to
page
within
our
site
via
links
and
link
anchor
text
is
an
important
signal
to
the
search
engines
about
the
focus
keywords
on
a
particular
page.
Internal
links
also
pass
authority
from
page
to
page
so
we
want
to
be
deliberate
with
the
creation
of
internal
links
to
maximize
the
flow
of
authority
through
a
site.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
• Top
navigation
names
and
categories
don’t
really
help
the
visibility
of
the
focus
keywords.
• The
footer
is
narrow
and
misses
an
opportunity
to
add
anchor
text
rich
links
throughout
the
site.
• Blog
pages
don’t
have
a
category
module
in
right
rail
for
supporting
category
pages
>
missed
opportunity
for
internal
content
and
linking
• Blog
posts
don’t
appear
to
be
actively
linking
back
to
pillar
or
primary
content
pages
for
boosting
of
focus
keywords
>
missed
opportunity
• No
visible
site
map
–
this
should
be
added
Outbound
Links
Description:
Links
that
send
traffic
away
from
your
domain
are
passing
your
authority
to
other
websites.
The
search
engines
pay
close
attention
to
who
you
link
to
and
try
to
assess
both
the
relevancy
of
the
link
and
how
much
of
your
domain/page
authority
to
give
to
the
destination
page
you
link
to.
In
general,
we
should
minimize
the
number
of
outbound,
authority
passing
links
and
only
pass
authority
to
sites
that
we
like
and
trust
and
want
to
build-­‐up.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
<Client>does
not
have
excessive
external
links
on
the
top
pages.
Inbound
Link
–
Quantity
&
Diversity
Description:
In
general,
the
more
links
pointing
to
a
page
on
your
site
(aka
backlinks,
inbound
links),
the
more
trust
your
pages
and
domain
will
have
in
the
eyes
of
the
search
engines.
Links
to
your
site
are
signals
of
trust
from
other
sites
and
pass
some
of
their
authority
to
you.
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

15. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
An
important
consideration
with
inbound
links
is
not
just
the
quantity,
but
the
diversity
of
domains
that
are
passing
trust
or
authority
to
you.
It
is
better
to
have
1,000
links
from
1,000
different
domains
than
1,000
links
from
1
domain.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
Client
Competitor
1
Competitor
2
Total
External
52,335
19,128
15,699
Followed
Links
Linking
Root
541
1,888
1,533
Domains
Data
Pulled
from
www.OpenSiteExplorer.com
<Client>has
strong
inbound
linking
volume,
but
diversity
is
lower
than
core
competitors.
Strong
need
to
diversify
the
base
of
domains
that
are
linking
to
<Client
Name>.
Inbound
Link
–
Anchor
Text
Description:
The
anchor
text
of
a
link
is
the
visible
text
to
the
reader
and
is
an
important
signal
to
the
search
engines
about
the
focus
keywords
on
the
destination
page
URL.
For
example
a
link
like
–
read
more
–
tells
the
engines
very
little
about
the
page
the
link
takes
you
(the
destination
page
URL),
but
a
link
like
–
read
more
about
red
tennis
shoes
or
simply
red
tennis
shoes
–
adds
valuable
keyword
signals
to
the
anchor
text.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
Opportunity
exists
to
use
focus
keywords
as
anchor
text
in
blog
posts
and
increase
highly
targeted
inbound
anchor
text
links.
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

16. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Top
Ten
Anchor
Text
for
<Client
Name>
<Screenshot
from
OpenSiteExplorer.org
showing
top
10
anchor
text
links>
Technical
Search
engines
ultimately
want
the
best
user
experience
for
the
searcher
–
whether
it
be
providing
the
most
relevant
results
in
the
search
engine
results
page
or
the
user
having
the
best
possible
experience
when
they
reach
the
website.
Having
a
well
operating
website
that
is
fast,
organized
well
and
error
free
is
an
imperative
for
both
user
experience
and
the
trust
of
the
engines.
The
search
engines
themselves
give
us
the
tools
to
analyze
and
improve
this
performance
through
the
webmaster
tools
accounts.
Server
Errors
(500
Error
code)
Description:
Broken
links,
incorrectly
formed
URLs
and
anything
that
hinders
the
search
bots
from
crawling/indexing
your
site
is
lost
opportunity
that
is
completely
within
your
control
to
fix.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
<Screenshot
from
Google
Webmaster
Tools
of
graph
over
time
of
server
errors>
404
Page
Errors
Description:
404
page
errors
occur
when
page
content
for
a
resolving
URL
is
not
found.
This
is
a
significant
breach
in
crawling,
indexing
and
content
etiquette
and
should
be
a
regular
review
and
repair
cycle.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
178
-­‐
404
errors
were
found
on
the
site.
These
need
to
be
cleaned
up
using
the
tactics
below.
The
entire
list
is
available
as
an
export
to
Excel
from
Google
Webmaster
Tools.
<Screenshot
from
Google
Webmaster
Tools
on
graph
of
number
of
404
errors
over
time>
Several
things
will
help:
1) If
these
pages
are
no
longer
available
–
re-­‐direct
them
via
301
to
the
most
relevant
page.
2) If
there
is
a
technical
problem
with
these
pages,
repair
them.
3) Analyze
the
pages
with
the
links
to
these
pages
and
either
fix
those
links
or
change
the
link
to
a
different
–
but
appropriate
–
page.
4) Create
a
more
helpful
404
page.
Just
because
a
404
page
is
generated,
doesn’t
mean
it
can’t
be
helpful.
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

17. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Not
Followed
Page
Errors
Description:
This
type
of
error
occurs
when
there
are
problems
with
the
re-­‐direct
-­‐
either
pages
re-­‐direct
too
many
times,
incorrect
formation
of
the
re-­‐direct
or
issues
with
the
content
on
the
re-­‐directing
page.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
39
re-­‐direct
errors
were
found
on
the
site.
The
entire
list
is
available
as
an
export
to
Excel
from
Google
Webmaster
Tools.
<Screenshot
from
Google
Webmaster
Tools
on
graph
of
number
of
not
followed
errors
over
time>
Robots
Exclusion
File
Description:
The
robots.txt
file
functions
as
a
first
stop
for
search
bots
crawling
a
site
that
tells
then
where
NOT
to
go.
Pages
like
login,
shopping
cart
and
other
non-­‐content
type
pages
should
be
excluded
so
as
to
not
waste
the
bots
cycles
and
to
keep
private
pages
out
of
the
index.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
Google
Webmaster
Tools
show
132
pages
restricted
from
crawling
by
the
Robots.txt
file.
The
blocked
URLs
look
reasonable.
The
robots.txt
file
should
be
updated
if
these
are
pages
that
the
team
wants
crawled
and
indexed.
<Screenshot
from
Google
Webmaster
Tools
of
Robots.txt
content>
Sitemap
XML
File
Description:
The
sitemap
XML
file
tells
the
search
engines
what
pages
are
on
the
site
without
them
having
to
crawl
and
find
every
page
through
links.
This
is
an
effective
file
to
use
when:
1) You
have
a
large
number
of
pages
2) You
have
a
weak
browse
structure
on
your
site
–
ie,
not
every
page
is
connected
by
a
follow-­‐
able
link
3) You
have
videos
as
part
of
your
content
–
the
sitemap
has
special
fields
for
videos
on
your
site.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

18. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
There
is
a
sitemap
submitted
via
Google
Webmaster
tools,
however
it
was
last
submitted
in
March
2010
and
doesn’t
appear
to
have
been
updated.
There
are
only
54
pages
submitted
with
16
warnings.
We
should
update
the
sitemap
and
make
sure
it
has
all
of
the
relevant
pages
and
is
feeding
properly
to
Google
and
Bing.
Page/Site
Load
Speed
Description:
Study
after
study
has
shown
the
positive
impact
of
a
fast
loading
website.
The
usability
skyrockets
when
a
page
loads
quickly
and
the
engines
–
especially
Google
–
have
had
a
keen
focus
on
this
metric
for
years.
This
analysis
is
performed
by
Page
Speed
app
that
is
added
to
Firebug
and
contains
more
specifics.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
http://www.clientsite.com
site
takes
approximately
2.8
seconds
to
load.
This
is
better
than
75%
of
sites.
Suggested
improvements
include
from
Google’s
Page
Load
Analysis:
High priority. These suggestions represent the largest potential performance wins for the least
development effort. You should address these items first:
<List the output from the Google Page Load Speed Analysis or other page optimization report
like http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/>
Medium
priority.
These
suggestions
may
represent
smaller
wins
or
much
more
work
to
implement.
You
should
address
these
items
next:
• Defer
parsing
of
Javascript
• Serve
resources
from
a
consistent
URL
• Combine
Images
into
a
CSS
sprite
• Minify
Javascript
• Minify
CSS
Low
priority.
These
suggestions
represent
the
smallest
wins.
You
should
only
be
concerned
with
these
items
after
you've
handled
the
higher-­‐priority
ones:
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

19. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Social
Media
Social
media
is
becoming
an
important
element
to
overall
online
visibility
and
a
new
component
of
the
search
engine
algorithms.
The
more
connected,
active
and
share-­‐able
your
content
and
website
are
–
the
more
trust
and
authority
the
engines
will
assign
to
your
web
enterprise.
Social
Profiles
Description:
The
creation
and
management
of
company
or
product
profiles
in
the
major
social
networks
should
be
part
of
every
teams
earned
media
strategy.
These
profiles
function
as
an
extension
of
your
website
and
give
you
an
opportunity
to
publish
content,
engage
your
audience
and
generate
activity
in
the
social
sphere.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
Most
are
active,
organized,
and
well
fed
with
content.
There
are
always
elements
that
can
be
improved
including
some
recommendations
in
the
next
sections.
Facebook
Main
-­‐
http://www.facebook.com/
Twitter
-­‐
https://twitter.com/<Client
Name>
LinkedIn
Company
Page
-­‐
http://www.linkedin.com/company/<Client
Company
URL>
YouTube
-­‐
http://www.youtube.com/user/<Client
Name>
Google
+1
–
https://plus.google.com/<Client
Site>
Social
Sharing
Description:
It
is
important
to
build
sharing
opportunities
into
your
website
to
encourage
visitors
to
comment,
like,
+1,
retweet
and
otherwise
syndicate
the
content
on
your
site
that
they
like
to
their
network.
The
search
engines
are
consuming
like,
share,
tweet
and
+1
data
and
including
as
part
of
the
trust
signals
in
their
algorithms.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
Homepage
-­‐
There
is
no
way,
other
than
the
footer
at
the
bottom,
to
follow,
like,
+1
or
engage
social
media
profiles.
Adding
a
more
significant
way
to
subscribe
to
social
profiles
is
something
to
consider
for
the
homepage
update.
Main
pages
on
site
-­‐
Includes
who
we
are,
what
we
do,
case
studies,
etc.
There
should
be
a
similar
reach
out
to
grow
the
network,
sign
up
for
newsletter.
Should
also
be
built
around
growing
the
network
on
these
pages.
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL

20. <Your
Agency
Logo>
<customers@yoursite.com>
|
<www.YourSite.com>
Blog
–
The
blog
has
opportunities
for
sharing
at
the
blog
and
blog
homepage
level,
but
is
not
very
prominent.
There
are
new
plug-­‐ins
for
wordpress
and
other
blog
sites
that
make
sharing
a
higher
priority.
Look
at
http://www.optify.net/search-­‐marketing/search-­‐engine-­‐personalized-­‐keyword-­‐rank-­‐
checking
for
the
widget
on
the
left
for
promoting
social
sharing.
Social
Activity
Description:
Treating
you
social
network
as
a
conversation
with
your
audience
is
imperative
to
a
successful
social
strategy.
Setting
up
a
profile
and
sharing
without
actively
managing
and
engaging
your
audience
is
a
mistake
and
wasted
resources
as
is
using
your
social
network
as
a
one
way
(you
to
them)
communication
structure.
Analysis
&
Opportunities:
Facebook
–
Account
is
very
active
and
updated.
Twitter
–
The
Twitter
profile
looks
to
have
a
broken
image
(might
just
be
my
browser)
but
the
background
and
branding
could
use
a
refresh
to
align
with
the
brand
better.
The
content
is
conversational
and
educational
with
a
good
number
of
followers.
LinkedIn
–
LinkedIn
has
some
new
tools
and
views
that
can
improve
the
business
impact
of
the
profile.
There
is
an
opportunity
to
improve
here.
YouTube
–
Videos
are
of
webinars
and
how
to’s.
Opportunity
exists
to
categorize
videos
for
easeier
use.
Google+
-­‐
The
Google+
profile
does
not
seem
to
be
accessible
or
working
from
the
links
in
the
Google+
posts
and
searches.
Overall,
social
media
is
very
active
and
the
content
being
syndicated
is
strong.
<Agency
Name>
|
<Agency
Address>
|
<Agency
Phone
Number>
|
<Agency
Website
Address>
Facebook.com/YourAgency
|
Twitter.com/YourAgency
|
Blog
URL